A digital media frame (also called a digital photo frame, a digital picture frame or a digital image display device) is a device that electronically stores and displays digital images. As used herein, the term digital image includes both digital still images and digital video images. The digital images are typically captured using digital cameras (still or video), but may also be obtained using other types of digital image sources such as scanners. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,271 to Edwards, entitled “Liquid Crystal Photograph,” describes a device resembling a pocket calculator which stores still pictures in a digital memory cartridge, and displays the pictures on a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The device includes an auto-sequencing mode which automatically changes the displayed image after a user-selectable time period, such as 5 seconds, or 5 minutes.
Digital media frames can include a modem to receive digital images over a communications network from computers or other devices, as described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,679 to Bandaru, et al., entitled “Digital Media Frame,” which is incorporated herein by reference. Such a digital media frame is commonly known as a “connected frame”. This patent further teaches that the connected digital media frame can include an information mode which displays news headlines, stock trading news, weather reports, and advertising received over the communications network.
Some digital media frames can receive digital images over a network from a “share group” which includes a plurality of members, as described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,910 to Agarwal, et al., entitled “Method and system for interfacing with a digital media frame network,” which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent teaches that images provided by various sharing members can be downloaded from a network service and automatically displayed on digital media frames which communicate with the network service.
FrameChannel is an Internet service that can be used with a digital media frame having a modem which enables an Internet connection, such as a WiFi modem, that enables communication with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) via a wireless home router. A FrameChannel customer can use a home computer to access the FrameChannel website (www.framechannel.com) in order to customize the content that will be provided to their digital media frame. The customer can select from many different channels of custom content including news, traffic, weather, sports, and financial data. The customer can also use FrameChannel to receive photos from social networking or digital image sharing websites such as Facebook and Flickr, and to receive photos via E-mail and camera phone messages.
Users of digital images may assign metadata to particular images based on emotional or aesthetic judgments of the user, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,104 to Parulski et. al., entitled “Method for adding personalized metadata to a collection of digital images.” This patent describes a software application for adding metadata to a collection of images by configuring and storing a database of pre-assigned metadata labels, displaying images and a menu for selecting the pre-assigned metadata labels, and storing user-selected metadata labels in association with the digital images. The aesthetic categories can include “Favorite” images, “Humorous” images, “Artistic” images, “Emotional” images, “Cute” images, and “Important moment” images. This metadata can be used to help organize the collection of images, and facilitate retrieval of particular images of interest (e.g., “funny” images) at a later date.
The web service Facebook provides a way for individuals to share images either publicly or with friends. When viewing an image, a Facebook user is presented with a user interface allowing the association of a free form textual comment with a given image. The collection of user comments on a given image is available and visible as feedback to the owner of the image as well as other viewers. A Facebook user can select the “like” button, which includes a “thumb up” symbol, to indicate that they like particular images.
Digital media frames can receive images from a variety of individuals. In many cases, the person viewing the received images on the digital media frame would like to provide immediate feedback to the persons who provided the images. Thus, there remains a need for a user of a digital media frame to easily provide immediate feedback to the persons who shared images, and to later utilize this feedback to assist in organizing their image collection.